Google is building its own answer to iPhone-Mac connectivity. A laptop will access apps on the phone

iPhone and MacBook owners have something that Android users have lacked for years – devices that understand each other without complex solutions. Google is about to fix this with its Android laptop platform Googlebook, and the latest Google Play Services update reveals how it will do it.

An app you don’t need to install

In the release notes for version 26.33, there was a mention of cross-device app launching. In practice, this should mean that from the Googlebook interface, you will be able to access apps installed directly on your phone – without having to install them on your laptop again.

The difference from existing solutions is significant. Screen mirroring from a phone is common, and usually means a window with a small vertical display in the middle of the monitor. Here, it’s more about the app behaving natively on the laptop – and eliminating the duplication of the same apps on two devices.

The groundwork has been laid for a while

This isn’t the first clue. Previous versions of Play Services already added a first-run guide that walks users through device connectivity features with Googlebook, and a so-called Quick Start, which allows you to set up a new computer using an Android phone. Exactly as it has worked between iPhone and Mac for years.

Googlebook is an Android platform for laptops that Google is preparing for this autumn. According to current information, Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo are expected to contribute to the hardware, and the entire environment is to be built on Gemini. This is a significant shift compared to Chromebooks – which have always been more like a browser with a keyboard.

Why temper expectations for now

However, caution is warranted. The information comes from update notes and code analyses, not an official announcement. Such features commonly change, get postponed, or disappear entirely from the final version, so let’s not consider it a done deal yet.

A number of practical questions also remain open, which the code doesn’t answer: how much delay there will be, what happens if the phone goes out of range, how it will affect battery life, and how permissions will be handled. It’s precisely on these details that similar ideas usually succeed or fail.

Would you use apps directly from your phone on your laptop, or would you prefer to install them separately?

Source: Android Authority